Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A Few Contrarian Proposals About the Occupiers

I think Occupy Wall Street emerged out of Wisconsin more than it did from Cairo, and I think this context is an indispensable part of the reason why OWS might not just change the focus of a few newscycles but facilitate progressive change in the legislative agenda for 2011-2012 (which is the best outcome OWS can hope for politically). I think it is a good thing that Oaklanders and so many other Americans have been inspired by the example of Occupy Wall Street to bring its strategies of occupation and resistance here, but I don't think it is a good thing that Londoners and apparently so many other Europeans have been, too. The last thing the European left ever needs to do is follow America's lead of all things when it comes to resistance, just as the last thing US Occupiers need is to lose themselves in a narcissistic fantasy that they are leading the world only to be lead by the nose by incumbent-elites to domesticate a real possibility for organized resistance into another Burning Man.

1 comment:

> I think Occupy Wall Street. . . might not just change the> focus of a few new[s]cycles but facilitate progressive> change in the legislative agenda. . .

Speaking of news cycles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Post----------------"The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published inthe United States and is generally acknowledged. . .as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily. . .Since 1993, it has been owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch'sNews Corporation, which had owned it previously from 1976to 1988. It is the seventh-largest newspaper in the U.S.by circulation. . . The Post is known for its sensationalistheadlines. . .

The Post has been criticized since the beginning of Murdoch'sownership for sensationalism, blatant advocacy and conservativebias. In 1980, the Columbia Journalism Review opined that'the New York Post is no longer merely a journalistic problem.It is a social problem – a force for evil.'"----------------

Gee, it's been a force for evil for half my life now.

Anyway, today's sensationalist headline is

"Protesters eat like kingsWHINE AND DINE"http://eater.com/archives/2011/10/19/whine-and-dine.php

"[W]hile your family of four may have been forced toresort to Hamburger Helper... hordes of Occupy Wall Streetprotesters instead feasted on organic chicken, spaghettiBolognese, roasted beet and sheep's milk-cheese saladand wild heirloom potatoes."